Celebrating Motherhood

Mother's Day always leaves me feeling reflective and melancholy. In interest of full disclosure, most years I just feel like skipping it. It just seems to be one holiday that no matter how much time has passed - no matter how much distance I seemingly have from infertility and miscarriage - it brings all those tough emotions right to the surface for me. 

That, of course, is not to say that I'm not grateful beyond words for the blessing of celebrating the day with my babies and my own amazing mother. I am. But I've learned that things can be simultaneously beautiful and difficult, wonderful and heavy, clear and murky. And for me, Mother's Day is all of those things.

This year, we are planning to be out of town for Mother's Day (t-minus 12 hours until we leave . . . eeep!), so Chris decided to recognize and celebrate Mother's Day a week early. We began by taking photos of me with each of the children for my Mother's Day Book. 

Momma and Brianna

Momma and Brenson

Momma and Brooke

Momma and Brecklyn

The kids had already written in and decorated my book for me, so I got to read that next. The book is *by far* my favorite Mother's Day gift to receive each year, and I just cherish it so much. 

Finally, I opened a few gifts. Chris got me two new hiking sticks that I'll *hopefully* be able to use on our upcoming trip. We have some great hikes planned!

Another gift this year was an order for 12 Mixtiles to put in our entryway. I have been thinking about displaying some photos of our travels for a while, and I am SO excited for this! I'm going to wait to order until after our trip.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of being a mother. May I never forget that I'm living the life I used to pray so hard for!